Harleen Quinzel
Dr. Harleen Quinzel is a crazed supervillain and a former psychiatric intern, better known as the Joker's partner and lover, Harley Quinn. Biography Early Life Harleen was born on July 20, 1990, in her childhood Harleen was often neglected by her father. He attempted to get rid of her many times, once by trading her for a pack of beer but she always found her way back home. Until one day he leaves her at a church where she was raised by the nuns there. When she misbehaved the nuns often disciplined her with a wooden paddle but it had no effect on her, in turn she would actually use the paddle on the nuns instead. Later on in her life she was able to graduate high school and college with a PHD and after many bad relationships she dived into her work when she started at Arkham Asylum in Gotham City as a psychiatrist who treated the criminally insane patients where one day, Gotham's mysterious vigilante known only as the Batman managed to apprehend the psychotic criminal, Joker, and had him placed in the Asylum to receive psychiatric treatment. Harleen was assigned to Joker, but during their sessions, he begun to fall in love with her and won her heart with his attractive charm. She started to bring him gifts. For starters, she brought him a small fluffy cat toy and later brought him an AK-47 rifle, which she realized too late was a fatal mistake as, in an attempt to escape, he gunned down many guards. Transformation into Harley Quinn Later, Joker is freed from his restraints and cell by his gang who broke into the Asylum with the intent on freeing their psychotic leader. Harleen was working late when she was caught off guard by the arrival of Jonny Frost, Joker's right-hand man, who cornered her in the electroshock therapy room, just as Joker arrived. Wanting her to be what he is, Joker had Harleen strapped to the therapy table while he tortured her to the brink of insanity before escaping the Asylum. While escaping, Joker and his gang attacked a restaurant, fleeing the crime scene moments after. Harleen, hungry for revenge, chased after Joker on a motorcycle and intercepted the Jokermobile. Holding him at gunpoint, she attempted to pull the trigger, but he managed to win her over before she could. As she lowered the gun, he knocked the gun out of her hands and slapped her across the face. However, he comforted her lovingly and kissed her for the first time. Joker later took Harleen to the Ace Chemicals Factory where he most likely fell into the vat of chemical waste that led to his transformation into Joker. He recited an oath and asked Harleen what she really wanted before she willingly jumped off the podium where the two stood into the vat below. Surprised at her actions, Joker attempted to leave her to die, but couldn't bring himself to abandon the woman he truly and deeply loved and dove in after her. Surfacing with her in his arms, Joker kissed Harleen and she awoken with her own transformation into Harley Quinn completed. Becoming Joker's partner and lover, Harley now viewed life as one big, chaotic joke, as she aided Joker in causing mayhem, murder and chaos throughout Gotham, leading to the destructive couple encountering Batman on a daily basis. Throughout the city, Harley and Joker became known as the King and Queen of Gotham City and the King never took his eyes of his beloved Queen, murdering anyone, no matter who they were, that had shown disrespect or tried to steal her from him. Murder of Robin At a later point, Harley and Joker managed to capture Batman's sidekick, Robin, and tortured him before murdering him and left his body for Batman to find along with a message painted on his suit, "Ha Ha. Joke's on you, Batman". ''Suicide Squad'' Imprisonment at Belle Reve Prison nightclub]] At Monster T's nightclub, Harley strips dance while Joker watches on before being interrupted by Monster T. However, Monster T incurs Joker's wrath after taking a shine to Harley. Joker calls her over to him and offers her to Monster T who is immediately seduced by Harley, but he quickly refuses, noticing Joker's jealously and rage. Attempting to calm an enraged Joker down, Monster T fails at the attempt as Joker shoots him dead. After Harley and Joker leave the club, they are soon intercepted by Batman, attempting to apprehend the two. Harley open fires on him as he leaps from the Batmobile onto the Jokermobile, but it all ends with Joker purposely driving the car straight into the river. Harley is trapped in the car and almost drowns before Batman rescues her and has her incarcerated at Belle Reve for two years whilst her lover escapes sharing her fate, going into hiding. Due to her unpredictable and dangerous nature, Harley is placed in segregation and forbidden all contact with other inmates. She is in solitary confinement and is handled by Belle Reve Security Officer Griggs. One day, she receives a visit from intelligence operative, Amanda Waller, who recruits her to become a member of Task Force X, a team of dangerous criminals, in exchange for a leaner sentence. Proceeding to Midway City to extract a high-profile mark, which is reported to be under a terrorist attack, Joker learns of Harley's predicament and tortures Griggs into leading him to the facility where the nano bombs that are implanted in the neck of each member of the squad that are set to detonate should any member rebel or try to escape are made. There, he blackmails one of the scientists involved in the program into disabling Harley's bomb. Meanwhile, on their approach to Midway, the squad's helicopter is shot down, forcing them to proceed on foot to their target. However, the squad is attacked by the witch, Enchantress' minions, but manage to fight their way to a safe room, before they learn that Waller is their mark, who is trying to cover up her involvement in Enchantress' siege. Meanwhile, Harley receives a text message from Joker who is on his way to rescue her and tells her to be prepared. Escorting Waller to a rooftop for extraction, the squad is suddenly shot upon by Joker and his men who have hijacked the helicopter meant to transport Waller. Harley abandons the squad and makes her way to the waiting helicopter, much to the shock of the squad. Waller orders Deadshot to assassinate Harley, but he misses the shot while Harley climbs aboard and escapes with her lover. She shares a happy reunion with Joker and they kiss before Waller's men shoot down the helicopter. Joker tries to save Harley, but she falls out of the burning helicopter and lands safely on a building. However, the helicopter crashes and explodes, seemingly killing Joker. A heartbroken Harley rejoins the squad who soon abandon their commander, Rick Flag, after Deadshot learns the truth about Enchantress from Waller's confidential files. The group decides to sit in a nearby bar and settle with a drink coming to terms with how they will be framed for the Goverment's mistakes if they don't die and fail the mission. Break up and Emancipation from Joker After one too many breakups between them, Joker finally has enough of Harley and has one of his goons throw her out of their house. Much to Harley’s dismay she was forced to gather her things and leave. Having no where else to go Harley goes to someone who she knows would help her, Doc, or as she calls him “her Taiwanese grandpa she never had”. He’d always take her in whenever things were bad between her and Joker but with the breakup being permanent this time she moves in to one of his apartment’s upstairs from his restaurant. There she tries to start her life anew without Joker, she makes drastic changes like her tattoos turning nearly all things related to Joker into other things she likes, cutting her hair shorter, getting a hyena and naming him “Bruce”, joining a roller derby team, and trying to start her own business in the criminal world. But knowing that if word got out she and Joker aren’t together anymore that it would put a target on her for all the people she wronged she keeps it secret. For a short while keeping the breakup under wraps was easy especially while at Roman Sionis’s Black Mask Club getting drunk and doing whatever she pleases like breaking Roman’s drivers legs, taking other people’s drinks, and so on. After talking with the club’s singer, Dinah Lance, who prefers to be called “Black Canary” or “Canary” and confessing that she and the Joker broke up one of the men hear her and plan on taking her somewhere after getting her drunker. After seeing her be in potential danger Lance decides to step in and beats up the two men and take a drunk Harley home, which resulted in Lance getting a promotion to be Roman’s new driver. Sometime later after a roller derby match, Harley is getting drinks with the derby team but overhears then talking about how Harley can’t handle things without Joker protecting her and she’ll be crawling back to him, while one of the members tries to have them give her a chance the rest don’t believe it which causes Harley to throw the drinks away and steal a truck to blow up Ace Chemicals which was said to be a statement of Harley saying “F you” to Joker. Before blowing up the plant, Harley remembers when she jumped into the vat for him and takes one of her necklaces with a J on it and throws it out of the truck before jumping out and walking away from the explosion. The next morning hungover from the night before Harley stops by her favorite breakfast place for a sandwich but before she could get a bite, Detective Montoya pulls up to arrest her but Harley runs off which causes a chase to ensue, after evading Montoya, a rival roller derby member from another team whose nose she broke, the brother of the Bruce’s old owner who Harley had eat before he tried to make Harley pay for him through sexual intercourse, and Roman’s old driver, Harley was about to eat her sandwich but loses it after Montoya tackles her. Appearance Harley once had pure blonde hair, which later became dyed one half pink and one half blue (halfway up only) after falling into a vat of acid, as well as insanity. She has blue eyes and noticeably pale skin, which is scattered with tattoos. Most notable of these tattoos is the word Rotten spelled out across her right cheek, as well as a small heart below her right eye. After breaking up with Joker she cuts her hair shorter with the half pink and half blue dye still intact as tips and her tattoos regarding Joker's pet name Puddin crossed off. And signs of J for Joker crosses off or turned into a different tattoo. Sometime after getting recaptured and placed back under Waller’s watch, Harley’s hair grows to above her waist and she dyes her hair a new color red and black (halfway up only). Her main outfit consists of a baseball-style jersey shirt that says "Daddy's Lil' Monster", fishnet leggings below red and blue sparkly shorts, black and white stiletto boots, and a glittery Letterman-esque jacket with the words Property of the Joker written across the back. Harley also keeps her hair in two ponytails high on her head, and a wide array of gold jewelry, including a choker necklace depicting the word Puddin, which is her pet name for her ex-boyfriend, the Joker. Abilities *'Peak human condition:' Harley Quinn, as a highly skilled and experienced supervillain and gymnast, is in top physical condition (from frequent villainous escapades with her boyfriend the Joker) for a woman her age, to the point that she could hold her own against the formidable Eyes of the Adversary troops of Enchantress. She was notably however, far weaker than her nemesis Batman, who subdued her without much effort. *'Expert combatant:' Harley Quinn is a highly skilled and formidable armed and hand-to-hand combatant, managing to seriously injure 5 Belle Reve guards before finally being restrained in an extra-secure cell. She also quickly overpowered 2 far larger Eyes of the Adversary troops of Enchantress in rapid succession (with nothing but her agility, combat skills and baseball bat), and swiftly cuts open Enchantress' chest with a samurai katana, in a single swift motion. However, she was swiftly defeated by Batman (with the latter knocking her out with a single mighty punch) and by Enchantress in their final battle, primarily due to the mystical metahuman's superior strength, durability (as Enchantress was unfazed by a mighty baseball bat blow from Harley), and tendency to teleport around the battlefield every so often. *'Expert acrobat': Harley Quinn, as a former gymnast, is shown to be highly skilled in various acrobatics, including pole dancing and other agile maneuvers, often incorporating agile moves while fighting opponents, notably able to flip over one monstrous Eye of the Adversary when the managed to get a hold of her (thus twisting herself out of his grasp), and to easily dodge slashes from Enchantress's daggers. *'Expert markswoman': Harley Quinn, while not nearly on par with Deadshot, is nonetheless a highly skilled markswoman, landing several headshots on some of Enchantress' monstrous Eyes of the Adversary troops. *'Gifted intelligence:' Harley Quinn, while still Harleen Quinzel, was (and likely still is) exceptionally smart, having been an excellent academic achiever in high school, which earned her a full scholarship to the prestigious Gotham State University, where she would go on to write a very successful graduate thesis. Harley's intellect extends itself to her psychological, tactical and deception skills. **'Expert psychologist': Harley Quinn, while still Harleen Quinzel, was a highly skilled psychologist, majoring in psychiatry at Gotham State University, with her psychology graduate thesis being a huge success, and allowing her the opportunity to work as a psychologist at the infamous Arkham Asylum itself. Even after being rendered psychopathic by the Joker, Harley shows at least traces of her psychologist expertise, being able to make swift breakdowns of the psychological profiles of El Diablo, Killer Croc, and Katana, knowing exactly what to say in order to get under their skin. Hence, she even proudly proclaims to Rick Flag that "she is known to be quite vexing." **'Expert tactician:' Harley Quinn, while not quite on par in this regard with her boyfriend Joker, is nonetheless highly skilled with improvising criminal activities, managing to trap and murder Batman's protegé Robin (though she notably had the assistance of Joker in this), to suggest a feasible escape option to Deadshot and Captain Boomerang, and to swiftly improvise a plan to weaken and take down the fearsome and powerful Enchantress. **'Expert deceiver:' Harley Quinn is a highly skilled deceiver, thus when Deadshot pretended to shoot at her, she convincingly pretended to have been killed only to reveal that she is still alive and later on, managing to trick Enchantress into thinking that she was about to swear allegiance to the latter, and to subsequently use that distraction to suddenly cut open Enchantress's chest with Katana's sword, exposing and pulling out the supervillain's vulnerable heart. *'Pathological indomitable will': Harley Quinn (much like the Joker) possesses an obliviousness to danger that makes her invulnerable to fear and intimidation, which are usually Batman's greatest weapons in combat. Unlike Joker, however, Harley does seem to fear death, as she was dismayed by the Jokermobile crashing into a river, due to her inability to swim. Weaknesses *'Human Vulnerability's:'Harley Quinn's greatest weakness is that she is a human with no enhanced strength, speed, durability, or metahuman powers, therefore making her quite vulnerable to the physical attacks of stronger and more powerful opponents. Harley, however, usually compensates for this quite well with her exceptional skills of hand-to-hand combat, marksmanship and deception, as well as her pathological fearlessness. However, while Harley was able to swiftly take down 2 of Enchantress' formidable monstrous Eyes of the Adversary in rapid succession, and managed to severely injure 5 Belle Reve prison guards, she was quickly brought down by the stronger and more skilled Batman (with a single punch, resulting in her arrest), and was brought down and force-feed by Griggs after getting electrocuted though her Belle Reve cage. Later, while surviving Incubus's superhumanly mighty blows, Harley was still swiftly and easily incapacitated by the gigantic metahuman (saved only by the timely intervention of El Diablo in flaming avatar form), and she is later relatively quickly overpowered in the final physical battle with Enchantress, due to her having superior strength, durability (being unfazed by a mighty blow of Harley's baseball bat) and combat skill, along with teleportation, telekinesis and telepathy (all of which Harley had no ability to effectively resist). She is only saved from her telepathic probing with the more mentally resistant El Diablo's help. *'Nano-bomb (formerly):' Harley Quinn, like the other members of Suicide Squad, was implanted with a Van Criss Laboratories nano-bomb. As a result, she initially dared not disobey Amanda Waller and Rick Flag, unwilling to have the implanted nano-bomb kill her by exploding her head. However, the weakness was ultimately bypassed when Joker forced Dr. Van Criss to disable her bomb, thus almost allowing Harley to escape from the Squad. *'Mental Illness:' Harley implies that she may have schizophrenia, as she claims to hear voices; she also implies that she sees things that aren't really around as she mentions being "off her meds" upon seeing the Enchantress's magical superweapon. Equipment *'Chiappa Rhino 60DS:' For long ranged combat, Harley sports a customized Chiappa Rhino 60DS, 6 cylinder magnum revolver. She carries it in a black leather holster slung under her arm. *'Good Night:' For melee combat, Harley carries a personalized wooden baseball bat which says "Good Night" down the side of it. She does have an urge to play with it, one example being when she pretends she's holding a shotgun. Personality Harleen was once a calm and compassionate young lady, before the Joker transformed her both mentally and physically into "Harley Quinn". Through the shock therapy and the Joker's manipulation, her mind and emotions were twisted and she was made into a homicidal, sadistic, childish psychopath, who would often use sexuality and her playful personality to achieve her goals or to entertain herself, usually harming others in the process. As of current time, she follows the Joker in whatever he demands of her, blindly and obsessively smitten with the ruthless psychopath, affectionately referring to him as Puddin. Harley carries almost an innocent persona, wide-eyed and bright, finding humor in otherwise dark situations, much like Joker himself. After attacking Belle Reve guards and seriously injuring a couple before finally being restrained, she maniacally began giggling to herself, expressing sadistic joy in it. She is also shown talking to voices in her head, saying that they told her to kill everyone and escape, before laughing it and saying that they said something else, potentially something worse. However, despite her psychopathy, Harley is still highly intelligent, even showing traces of her psychologist expertise, as Harley was able to make swift breakdowns of the psychological profiles of her teammates, knowing exactly what to say in order to get under their skin (proudly referring to herself as "vexing"), though Deadshot calls her out on this. Her intellect also extends itself to tactical skills, as Harley notably assisted the Joker in the murder of Robin, suggested to Deadshot and Captain Boomerang a feasible escape option from Suicide Squad, and even swiftly improvised a plan to weaken and take down the extremely powerful Enchantress, which proved successful. Harley is also quite tough and pathologically fearless (another trait she shares with her boyfriend), fighting alongside Suicide Squad and having fun doing so. With the team, she is shown to get along well with them, once she got to know them a bit better, with Harley acting as a bar tender at a derelict bar. She even seemed horrified before El Diablo's death, imploring Rick Flag not to blow him up (while defeating Incubus). She has a very dim view on a regular life, stating "normal is a setting on the washer" to El Diablo, who lost his family because of his powers; however, Harley does have the dream of having a family with the Joker, as Enchantress' implanted vision revealed. Although often painted as a victim of psychological abuse, the Joker himself claims very little credit for Harley's condition. Indeed, according to the Clown Prince of Crime, Harley was always mad deep down (simply better at controlling her insanity then most), and that he himself had merely made all her madness rise to the surface. It should be noted, however, that Joker's insanity occasionally induces him to make conclusions that only make sense to him, hence this might not necessarily be the case. Trivia * This is her first cinematic appearance. ** This is also her second live action appearance. * Harley Quinn was originally created for Batman: The Animated Series, and later incorporated to the DC comic book universe. * In an interview with Empire magazine, producer Richard Suckle described the character as "a fan fave. Funny, crazy, scary... You can't come up with enough adjectives to describe all the different things you see her do." Appearances *Suicide Blonde *''Suicide Squad'' *Suicide Squad: Behind the Scenes with the Worst Heroes Ever *Suicide Squad (Novel) *''Birds of Prey (And The Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn)'' *The Suicide Squad *''Gotham City Sirens'' *''Harley Quinn vs The Joker'' External Links * * Category:Batman Category:Batman Villains Category:Suicide Squad Category:Suicide Squad characters Category:Characters in the comics Category:Characters without powers Category:Villains Category:Humans Category:Americans Category:Females Category:Medical Category:Suicide Squad members Category:Gotham City Sirens Category:Gotham City Sirens characters Category:Harley Quinn Category:Birds of Prey Villains